Foreword
On a summer afternoon in 1929, in a garden at Geneva which was crowded with delegates to an international conference on education, all bearing their names on tickets hung from the neck - 1 met a serious but genial Hindu whose ticket announced "D. K. Karve of Poona". My thoughts immediately flew back to an assembly of teachers in Poona High School (January 1913) before whom I had given an ethical story lesson to a class of boys, and to Fergusson College which I had visited under the guidance of Prof. R. P. Paranjpye. Prof. Karve and I plunged into fraternal converse straightway, and I learned that he had sat among my Poona audience sixteen years ago. As my teaching tour in the Bombay Presidency and Baroda was Short, I had met many people that he well knew-Mr. (afterwards Sir) Claude Hill, Mr. W. H. Sharp, Sir Narayan Chandavarkar, Miss Chubb of the Ahmedabad Training College and others; and elsewhere I had met Mrs. Besant, Prof. Gokhale, Sir William Wedderburn and Benoy Kumar Sirkar, all of whom are mentioned in Karve's most interesting autobiography. 1-now aged 80-have mingled with many social pioneers and reformers, and I-who often told young listeners of the boy prince Arjuna's steadiness of eye in concentrating on the target for his arrow-quickly recognized the true pioneer type in the man of Poona. He had the Arjuna gleam in his Brahman eyes, the gleam that tells-not of dreaminess which only dreams, but of dream-genius that frames a noble conception and proceeds to plan, with concentration and business capacity, schemes for the service of humanity, and goes out into the wide world and realizes the plans. And India and civilization whisper blessings on this aged hero's name. At one point in this story he calls himself a 'Mad-man'. Certainly the blood never trickled lazily in his veins. If I wanted to stir lazy lads by a tale, I would tell them the tale of the youthful band, of which our D. K. K. was the leading spirit, who tramped 110 miles from Murud by the sea to the examination room at Satara, in a four days' pilgrimage, and on the third night slept uneasily under the stars in a rocky glen where wild beasts perhaps prowled. The narrative is a parable of his career. He saw his goal, he walked, he persisted, he achieved. One long effort--in meditating, devising, walking, riding, collecting, debating, persuading, agitating-resulted in the Widows' Home and the Mahilä Vidyalaya. He was then 57, and the vision of another (so to speak) Satara rose to his imagination. Across the lands and the seas there flashed from the Far East a picture of a Women's University in Tokyo. What Japan had done, could not the valour of Murud and the wit of Poona do? The enthusiast aged 57 exclaims: "New life coursed through my veins!" Then follows the splendid record-to me as enchanting as the chronicle of Marco Polo-of our pioneer's passage round the globe by the route of London, Dublin, Geneva, Elsinore by the Baltic Sea, United States and Tokyo. At Tokyo, where 1600 students attended the Women's University established by the noble labour of Naruse in 1900, the son of Murud almost experienced a thrill of reverence as if in a sacred city; and in his account he murmurs the word "delight". He tells how the earth-quake of 1923 injured the buildings, and how the Japanese "were not discouraged, and work was carried on in temporary huts". It has been in that invincible temper that the youth who slept under the stars on the rough path to Satara has evolved, in spite of innumerable difficulties, the Shreemati Nathibai Damodher Thackersey Indian Women's University. The reader will note all along that the Pioneer perpetually sounds the music of gratitude to helpers in his enterprises. He thanks rich and poor, Indians and European.
Preface
I am happy that a new edition of 'Looking Back', an autobiography of Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve is being published. Published 58 years ago in 1936, it contains valuable information about the social conditions of that period as also the trials and tribulations which he had to face. It also shows the social zeal and indomitable spirit with which he started the work of emancipation and education of women. His life story, the struggle and the achievements, makes interesting reading and reflects the dedication of this great social reformer. He lived for 104 years and was fortunate to witness the all-round expansion of the activities started by him. A fitting tribute was paid to him when he received 'Bharat Ratna', the Highest Honour of the land, on his hundredth birthday
DEVELOPMENT OF WORK:
Hingne Stree Shikshan Samstha the Institution established by Maharshi Annasaheb Karve 98 years ago in 1896, now known as 'Maharshi Stree Shikshan Sanstha' has grown into a major social welfare and educational organization conducting many activities in Pune and other parts of Maharashtra. Some of them may be mentioned here to show the diverse fields they cover in education and welfare of women and children. Educational Institutions from pre-primary schools to colleges, Hostel for working women, Homes for the Aged Women, Industrial Training Institutes for Girls, the Engineering College for Women only, Pune, which provides courses in Electronics, Computer Science, Instrumentation etc. This ambitious project of Engineering College for Women only, is estimated to cost Rs. 3.50 crores when completed. College of Architecture for women was started in August '94. The degree course is of 5 years duration.
It was also due to his untiring efforts that the First University for Women, now known as 'S.N.D.T. University', was established in 1916. This University was recognized by Government by passing a Special Act in 1949. This University, having its Headquarters in Bombay, conducts many colleges and institutions aimed at the education and all round development of women, and is guided by eminent educationists.
Another institute started as a Fitting Memorial to Dr. Karve in 1963, is the Karve Institute of Social Service at Karvenagar, Pune. It offers a two years post graduate course leading to Masters' Degree in Social Work. The Institute is recognized for M. Phill. and Ph. D. courses by the University of Poona.
THE GLOBAL CONTEXT:
Despite the accumulating forces for greater participation, large number of people continue to be excluded from the benefits of development: the poorest segments of society, people in rural areas, many religious and ethnic minorities and, in almost every country, women. Also excluded are those millions, particularly children, whose preventable and premature deaths cut short their lives.
Women are the world's largest excluded group (box 2.3). Even though they make up half the adult population, and often contribute much more than their share to society, inside and outside the home, they are frequently excluded from positions of power. They make up just over 10% of the world's parliamentary representatives, and consistently less than 4
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